


So far from where we began

by Elisexyz



Series: 25 days of Swanfire fic-mas [11]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Neal and Emma raise Henry, Tallahassee AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 10:33:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17021025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: Neal has a thing for Christmas traditions and absolutely no restraint. Emma not so secretly loves it.





	So far from where we began

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Family traditions" prompt in the [ "25 days of fic-mas" challenge on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/tagged/25-days-of-fic-mas/chrono). Just pointless fluff.

“We are going to end up with Hulk on our Christmas tree this year, I know it,” Emma sighs, with a resigned look at Henry as they follow him down the toy aisle.

“Well, it’s green, it’s going to blend in,” Neal offers, with a shrug.

She rolls her eyes at him, suppressing a smile in front of the cheerful demeanour that tends to make its appearance every year around the holidays.

Neal likes Christmas— but not in a ‘This is something that I’ve always done and I’m sort of into it’ kind of way, he _genuinely_ likes it: he insisted on celebrating even back when they were still living in their yellow Bug, although the most that they could afford at the time were a few candies and an early rise for the sake of the view, and in the years that they’ve had an actual house and legit money he’s started working to establish _traditions_.

Which means that there’s a pretty good chance that _anything_ unusual that you do around the holidays will be detected and added to the list.

When he was three, Henry decided that putting a dinosaur on the tree would be a brilliant idea, so now every year the kid gets to choose a new ornament – or two, or three… - to add to the tree, which is, frankly, a mess: there are all kinds of ornaments, last year Henry was obsessed with Nemo so they have some fish on there too, basically anything that they can get away with hanging goes in there. Neal says that that way it has _spirit_. Emma generally rolls her eyes at him and pretends not to find it all adorable.

The only thing that apparently they _can’t_ add to the tree is food, because when they tried the chocolate ornaments they started disappearing mysteriously – Emma herself ate some of those; in her defence, they tasted even better than they looked, and having them hanging right under her nose was too much of a temptation.

Neal also buys candies every year, the same that they had their first Christmas together, and they both are very happy to drop on the couch during the night between the 24th and the 25th to snuggle and eat Santa’s cookies.

“I’m— going to stop him,” Neal announces, just as Emma notices that Henry has his sights on a huge – and probably horribly expensive – helicopter that they’d better distract him from before it makes it to his Christmas list.

“Yeah, hurry,” she snorts. He quickly jogs to the kid, scooping him up without warning because he knows that it always makes Henry giggle and telling him something that Emma doesn’t catch.

She gets distracted by a bunch of little dreamcatchers hanging on her right. A small smile twists her lips as she reflexively moves closer, touching one lightly with her fingertips.

“Fly-paper for nightmares,” she whispers to herself, fondly. They still have their old dreamcatcher at home, except they’ve moved it to Henry’s room, when they had to make him transition to sleeping in his own bed.

She casts a glance in Neal and Henry’s direction – apparently they are looking at little toy skeletons, Neal crutched down so that he can see the first shelf; those will look _great_ on the tree, that’s for sure –, before deciding to just take one.

She walks up to them, holding it behind her back while biting back a smile.

“Found anything?” she asks, lightly.

“I’m not sure,” Henry says, thoughtfully, with a dubious look at the toy skeletons.

“Well, those do look more like Halloween decorations than Christmas ones,” she points out, with a shrug.

“Mmh, yeah,” Henry eventually agrees, twisting his mouth and pursing his lips in a way that’s frighteningly reminiscing of his dad. “I need to start again!” he announces then, before sprinting back towards the beginning of the aisle.

Neal watches him go, a little wide-eyed, before snorting in amusement. “Alright then,” he sighs, pushing himself back up. “Start again it is.” Then he notices her staring. “What?” he asks, curiously. Emma is sure that he detected the grin that she’s trying to hide.

“Could this go on our tree?” she asks, holding up the dreamcatcher for him to see. “I mean, it’s not exactly Christmas themed, but neither are fish.”

Neal beams at her. “Love when you get into it, baby,” he grins, stepping forward to place a quick kiss on her lips and sliding his arm around her waist, guiding her as she turns around so that they can follow Henry.

And to think that there was a time when she genuinely thought that she would be better off just wiping damn Christmas off the face of the Earth.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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